I’ve been thinking a lot about patience lately.

Patience is our ability to tolerate or accept delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry. At least, that’s what the dictionary says. We need patience, almost always. But patience is also saying “no” to option 1 in favor of future options. It’s easy to say yes to option 1. It’s available and open. It’s ready for the taking, and it often has elements of what we want. But is it really?  

Option 1 is just option 1. It’s the first, not the best. It might be best in the end, but option 1 is scary for two reasons: one, “best” needs relativity to define it. In the absence of other viable options, this makes option 1 pretty risky; two, option 1 has a tendency to ruin future options, which adds another layer of risk. This theory will hold true for anything, pizza or partners. You know, “Eh, I’m full, I can’t eat the pizza.” Or, “Uh, she slept with that guy? No chance.” Even when the pizza was more appetizing and the girl wanted to be with you. Options 2, 3, and 4 can be casualties of war, I guess.

There’s something to be said for jumping on Option 1, as long as you can live with chipping your tooth on the handlebar every now and then. Because the best option never tells you it’s the best option. It just is. Option 1 is the best sometimes. And other times you won’t recognize it until you’ve been exposed to the pizza that got offered 30 minutes late or the girl who came along three months after the fact. This is a bummer. You can only see how the puzzle fits when you look backwards. A reality of life.

So we go on, not knowing what’s next, just hoping that option 1 will pay off next time. Or maybe we just need a little more patience.

*This article is part of the ongoing Morning After series: short, reflective pieces on thoughts, feelings, and ideas about life. They’re kind of like well-manicured journal entries, written the morning after a night out.